Staff Profile

Career Summary

Biography

Dr. Yuen Kuan Yong received the B. Eng. degree (1st Class Hons.) in mechatronic engineering and the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from The University of Adelaide, Australia, in 2001 and 2007, respectively. She is currently an ARC DECRA Fellow, working at The University of Newcastle, Australia. Her research interests include the design and control of nanopositioning systems, high-speed atomic force microscopy, finite-element analysis of smart materials and structures, sensing and actuation, and miniature insect. Dr. Yong's research has been recognized by a number of awards, including the 2008 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM) Best Conference Paper Finalist Award, The University of Newcastle Vice-Chancellor's Awards For Research Excellence and the Pro Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research Performance. She is a member of the Technical Program Committee of AIM and the International Conference on Manipulation, Manufacturing, and Measurement on the Nanoscale (3M-NANO). She is also an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems.

Dr. Yong has co-organized several invited sessions at international conferences, which include:

Advances in Micro and Nano-Scale Positioning Systems: Design and Control at the IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM), Besançon, France, July 2014 (lead organizer).

Advances in Micro and Nano-Scale Positioning Systems: Design and Control at the IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM), Wollongong, Australia, July 2013 (lead organizer).

Compliant Nanopositioning at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), St. Paul, MN, USA, May 2012 (lead organizer).

Control of Micro and Nano Systems at the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), Maui, Hawaii, Dec. 2012 (lead organizer).

Dr. Yong is also the organising committee member of:

The 2nd Workshop on Dynamics and Control of Micro and Nanoscale Systems, 2012.

Qualifications

PhD, University of Adelaide, 20/12/2007

Bachelor of Engineering (Honours), University of Adelaide, 19/12/2001

Research

Research keywords

Atomic force microscopy

Nanopositioning

Nanotechnology

Piezoelectric actuators and sensors

Smart structures

Research expertise

Dr. Yong has made significant contributions to the research efforts in Mechatronics, particularly in nanopositioning and high-precision devices. She has exceptional skills in the design, modelling and control of flexure-based nanopositioners. She also has an extensive knowledge in the modelling of nanopositioners and smart structures using finite-element-software, in particular ANSYS.

Dr. Yong has been actively involved in research related to high-performance nanapositioners and AFMs. In 2005, she developed a 3 degree-of-freedom (DOF) micropositioner, which translates along the X and Y axes, and rotates about the Z axis for biological cell injections and Scanning Electron Microscopy applications. In 2006, a 5 DOF flexure-based micropositioner was designed and delivered to the National Taiwan University for aligning optical fibers and lasers. A XY flexure-based nanopositioner was designed and fabricated for fast nanoscale positioning in 2007. Her contributions in the innovative design and control techniques of the XY nanopositioner were recognized when her article "Design, Analysis and Control of a Fast Nanopositioning Stage", was selected for the Best Conference Paper Finalist Award.

An example of Dr. Yong's contribution to the aforementioned research field can be seen in "Video-Rate Lissajous-Scan Atomic Force Microscopy" IEEE Trans. Nanotechnology, 13(1), 2014. This paper presents a novel scanning method for capturing Atomic Force Microscopy images in video speeds. Dr. Yong and her co-workers were the first to successfully utilise such scanning trajectory for video-rate AFM.

Another example of Dr. Yong innovative research work can be seem in "Simultaneous sensing and actuation with a piezoelectric tube scanner" Review of Scientific Instruments, 79, 2008. Dr. Yong and her co-worker were involved in the design and control of a novel 12-electrode piezoelectric tube nanopositioner for simultaneous actuations and sensing. The piezoelectric tube nanopositioner was successfully installed into an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and high quality images were produced. The research paper arising from this research project was the first paper documenting the success of such a nanopositioner for accurate and fast AFM imaging.

SUMMARY OF DR. YONG'S RESEARCH PROJECTS:

PIEZOELECTRIC STRAIN SENSOR

Piezoelectric sensors have the benefit of simple interface circuitry, low cost, high sensitivity, and high bandwidth. Although piezoelectric sensors have been successfully used as vibration sensors in smart structures, complications arise when they are used in a feedback loop for tracking. As piezoelectric strain sensors exhibit a capacitive source impedance, a high-pass filter is created, typically with a cut-off frequency of 1 to 10 Hz. This filter can cause significant errors and destabilize a tracking control system. Here, this problem is overcame by using a low-frequency bypass technique to replace the low-frequency component of the strain measurement with an estimate based on the open-loop system.

HIGH-SPEED NON-RASTER AFM SCANNING

A traditional Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) utilizes a scanner to scan over an area of a sample in a zig-zag raster pattern. The fast axis of the AFM scanner is forced to track the non-smooth triangular waveform that contains frequencies beyond the scanner's mechanical bandwidth. The high-order dynamics of the triangular waveform tends to trigger the resonance frequencies of the scanner. This leads to image distortions. In this project, novel smooth scan patterns are proposed to achieve much higher speed scans than a raster pattern without triggering the dynamics of the scanner.

FLEXURE-BASED NANOPOSITIONERS

The design of the flexure-based nanopositioning stage is based on the concept of flexible mechanisms (flexures) where motions are generated through the elastic deformation of the structures. There are no moving and sliding joints; therefore, the problems of wear, backlash, friction and the

Languages

Cantonese

English

Malay

Mandarin

Fields of Research

Code

Description

Percentage

090602

Control Systems, Robotics And Automation

45

091304

Dynamics, Vibration And Vibration Control

45

029999

Physical Sciences Not Elsewhere Classified

10

Memberships

Body relevant to professional practice.

Member - IEEE

Editorial Board.

Technical Program Committee Member -- IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, AIM

Technical Program Committee Member -- International Conference on Manipulation, Measurement and Manufacturing on the Nanoscale, 3M-Nano

Awards

Research Award.

2014

Vice-Chancellor's Awards For Research ExcellenceThe University of Newcastle (Australia)The award recognise the commitment of researchers who consistently go above and beyond to deliver exceptional results.

2014

Pro Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research PerformanceThe University of Newcastle (Australia)This award recognises demonstrated excellence of individual researchers of the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment in their respective fields.

2008

Best Conference Paper FinalistIEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (Australia)Awarded for excellence in research innovation

Invitations

Member of the PhD public defence committee panelNorwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU - Trondheim), Norway (PHD Examiner.)

2012

Collaboration

Dr. Yong has established collaboration partnerships with:

Dr. Kam Leang at the Electroactive Systems and Control Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Reno, Nevada, USA;

Prof. Frank Allgower at the Institute for Systems Theory and Automatic Control, the University of Stuttgart, Germany;

Prof. Ian Petersen at the University of New South Wales at ADFA, Canberra, Australia;

Dr. Abu Sebastian at the IBM Zurich research lab, Switzerland;

Dr. Bharath Bhikkaji at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT - Madras);

Dr. Sumeet Aphale at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland; and

Dr. Kexiu Liu at Western Digital, Lake Forest, California, USA.

Administrative

Administrative expertise

Dr. Yong is the Lab Manager of Laboratory for Dynamics and Control of Nanosystems. Her main responsibilities include:

• Conducted induction courses for new laboratory users to ensure lab safety and proper use of equipment.

• Responsible for equipment ordering and purchasing.

• Responsible for managing equipment maintenance schedules and the replacement of parts when necessary.

• Conducted software updates for equipment and computers.

Teaching

Teaching keywords

Finite element analysis

Mechanical design and drawings

Mechatronics

Programmable logic control

Robotics

Teaching expertise

From 2002 to 2006, Dr. Yong involved in teaching and tutoring a wide range of subjects, including Design Graphics (CAD), ANSYS (FEA), Matlab, Robotics, Programmable Logic Control (PLC) and Automatic Control, at The University of Adelaide, Australia.

In 2010, Dr. Yong was a guest lecturer of Advanced Computer Aided Engineering and Manufacturing at the School of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Newcastle.

Yong YK, Fleming AJ, Moheimani SO, 'Vibration and tracking control of a flexure-guided nanopositioner using a Piezoelectric strain sensor', First International Conference on Manipulation, Manufacturing and Measurement on the Nanoscale (3M-Nano 2011), Changchun, China (2011) [E2]